BRICS Summit Goa 2016: The outcomes

Relevance and use of the article in UPSC prelims and mains examination:Dear aspirants BRICS summit in india is a topic to see from the prospect of international relation. what india can do when it is on the phase of transforming itself. And summit like BRICS are toll how efficiently we can use these. For India, hosting the summit on the heels of the Uri terror attack which forced it to undertake surgical strikes against terrorists based in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, the platform presented the perfect opportunity to put forth its new assertive approach towards terrorism. Prime Minister Narendra Modi defined terrorism as the most serious threat to the group’s economic prosperity.

All you need to know about BRICS

BRICS brings together five major emerging economies, comprising 43 percent of the world population and 30 percent of the world GDP and 17 percent share in the world trade.

India is hosting the 8th BRICS Summit where world leaders will hold consultations on issues of mutual interest. It is being held on October 15-16 in Goa. BRICS is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

BRICS brings together five major emerging economies, comprising 43 percent of the world population, having 30 percent of the world GDP

The acronym BRIC was first used in 2001 by Goldman Sachs in their Global Economics Paper, “The World Needs Better Economic BRICs” on the basis of econometric analyses projecting that the economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China would individually and collectively occupy far greater economic space and would be amongst the world’s largest economies in the next 50 years or so.

Issue:

Starting essentially with economic issues of mutual interest, the agenda of BRICS meetings has considerably widened over the years to encompass topical global issues.

BRICS cooperation has two pillars – consultation on issues of mutual interest through meetings of leaders as well as of ministers of finance, trade, health, education, agriculture, communication, labour, etc. and practical cooperation in a number of areas through meetings of working groups/senior officials.

Members approach:

Taken together, the Brics deliberations highlighted both challenges and opportunities.

There is a great scope for economic synergies and also cooperation on realities like transnational terrorism, as exemplified by the establishment of the Brics joint working group on counterterrorism. Brics aims at a multipolar world with enlarged space for emerging economies.

Creating an emerging market network to make the architecture of global governance and economic interaction among nations more equal than it has been since the victors of World War II gave it its present shape.

Outcomes

In current times, India is one of the most important players in Brics

India has adopted a five-pronged approach for the Summit which is called Building, Responsive, Inclusive and Collective Solutions.which stands for Institution building (to improve and institutionalise Brics cooperation), Implementation (of the decisions taken in previous summits), Integrating (integration of current cooperation mechanisms), Innovation (new cooperation mechanisms) and Continuity (keeping up with the existing mechanisms).

During the Modi-Putin meeting, key issues of defence, security, civil nuclear cooperation, trade and investment are expected to dominate the talks.

While the Brics made all the politically right noises on almost all global issues ranging from terror to urbanisation and climate change.

A Brics credit rating agency still remains at the level of talk, however. While the declaration piously calls for all countries to stop supporting nations that support terror, respect international law and give primacy to the UN as the central agency for global coordination, no one seriously expects China to stop its support for Pakistan or to give up its nine-dash line claims in the South China Sea.

Sufferings of BRICS

Forthcoming summits will reflect India’s status as a key player both regionally and internationally. But unless we move from an event-oriented to a process-driven diplomacy, this will only be a transient gain.

BRICS has begun to suffer the affliction characteristic of several other multi-country groupings, and that is the exponential expansion in its committees, working groups and forums resulting in an extraordinarily crowded calendar of meetings

BRICS has one practical outcome to its credit, and that is the New Development Bank, and an Indian, K.V. Kamath, is its president. But this institution is overshadowed by the much better funded Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) initiated and led by the Chinese.

The Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA), another important BRICS initiative, remains on paper. There is a proposal for the setting up of a BRICS Credit Rating Agency to challenge the monopoly of the West, and this might be of value if adopted.

On the trade side any hint of a BRICS free trade agreement comes up against the fears both India and Russia have of being swamped by Chinese imports. It will not have traction even though none of the five countries are part of any of the emerging mega trade blocs like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). At a time when both TPP and TTIP are stalled, even a hint of a mega trade bloc of the key emerging economies would be a major development. It could even bring the World Trade Organisation back in play!

The parallel Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC), which is a platform for India’s exclusive engagement with the countries of Indo-China (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam) and Myanmar, could also be a major component of the Act East strategy. But neither BIMSTEC nor the MGC have lived up to their potential, and India’s engagement with them has been mostly episodic and ad hoc. architecture.

Conclusion:

There is no doubt that the forthcoming summits will be major events and will reflect India’s status as a key player in the region and as a globally significant player.

But that will only be a transient gain unless we begin to pay attention to the much less glamorous and more nuts-and-bolts effort to use events as key markers in a well-conceived and systematic process of expanding our strategic space, leveraging our strengths and remedying our vulnerabilities. It is time to move from an event-oriented to a process-driven approach.

Question for prelims :

Consider the following Statements about BRICS.

BRICS brings together five major emerging economies, comprising 43 percent of the world population and 30 percent of the world GDP and 17 percent share in the world trade.

In the recent Goa summit of brics India has adopted a five-pronged approach for the Summit which is called Building, Responsive, Inclusive and Collective Solutions.

The New Development Bank, of brics ha a dynamic institute with, K.V. Kamath, is its president.

Which of the following statements is/are correct:

Only 1

Only 1 and 2

1, 2, 3

None of the above is correct

Practice question for mains:

Question: For india to increase its dominance at world label indian have a chance to use the brics forum to speak on various issues.but to capitalize brics india have to focus on process-driven approach rather than event-oriented approach. Discuss.

Suggested points :

Discuss about brics and its structure

Recent brics summit in india and its outcomes.

Problems of brics and its member countries.

How it can be used as an organisation to check the dominance of western driven institutes.

Favourable for india in brics. And approach of india to use brics in becoming global power